“We were swinging the bat really well against him, and they weren’t bad pitches,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Detroit has a great lineup, so you really want to put up as many runs as you can as quickly as you can.”

Tigers manager Jim Leyland wasn’t surprised.

“People need to realize that isn’t the team that fell way out of the race,” he said of the Royals. “They’ve brought up some young, aggressive hitters that are pretty impressive.”

Luke Hochevar (9-10) gave up five runs and eight hits in seven innings.

“My job is to go out and execute pitches, whether we’re leading by 10 runs or down by 10 runs,” he said.